Online
by midnite-republic
Summary: Usopp is the school punching bag, who's only friends are 3 ten year olds. Until of course he logs on to the VR MMORPG One Piece. (20 Years at Sea, Day 13)


A/N: For the 20 Years at Sea event over on Tumblr, Day 13: AU (cross-posted). I've had this AU idea floating around for a while but I misplaced my original notes for it. I might pick it up again for the multi-chapter thing I had planned later, but for now this is it.

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 **Online**

Usopp's shoulder hit the locker with bruising force, his other one already feeling the forming bruise from the shoulder check that had formed the momentum to careen to the side.

"Watch were you're going, Pinocchio." Brad, the jock responsible for his now aching shoulders sneered as he sauntered past, snickering with a large crowd of Usopp's usual tormentors.

"Yeah, you should be more careful. Loser," echoed from more than one of them, mixing loser, Pinocchio and nerd for the occasional difference.

Usopp took a deep breath, holding still as they passed completely. At least it was Friday and all he had to do to be rid of this hellhole for the weekend was grab the last of his stuff from his own locker for the small amount of homework that he had set for Monday. He was looking forward to being able to forget that school was a thing and just immerse himself in gameplay for the weekend.

Usopp was just an average looking 17-year-old, with dark skin and an afro that he generally attempted to tame with cornrows. The only really non-average thing about him was his rather prominent nose, which of course the kids he went to school with had latched on to as soon as they could.

He got pretty good grades in pretty much all his classes except P.E, where the only type of activity he was any good at was track, which pretty much not a useful thing in their team sport orientated school unless it can be used in one of the teams. Plus, he was a pretty good artist as well, which all pretty much added up to the fact that he was at the bottom of the social food chain. Which of course meant he was the usual target, for everyone.

It hadn't helped matters that when the game, One Piece, had become particularly popular, he had answer the question about what he played with the boring and often mocked category of islander. Not the exciting and attention-grabbing pirate or marine, or even the mildly less boring bounty hunter or merchant sailor. Not that anyone had cared that he had had his reasons for his choice.

Usopp managed to grab his stuff and leave the campus without anything particularly nasty happening, the taunts and name-calling were just something he was used to at this point, and began his walk home thinking about what would happen as soon as he finished off his homework. The boys from his apartment building that he sometimes watched over where staying the night at his place because Oryan and Carson's mums were both working night shifts that night and Peter had convinced his dad that he should be able to join in.

They were going to bring their own game consoles so they could all spend the time playing One Piece.

One Piece was a virtual reality game with 98.5% reality (there had been rumours that they had tried to get a higher reality rating but people had had issues with the pain index being too high). Was played via a headset and could be played as you slept. There was also the added ability to create a character backstory that linked your character with others who were also playing, if you had their usernames, allowing full immersion in the character.

Basically, the One Piece was a great pirate treasure left by the Pirate King and was the mark that pirates wanted to get to in order to become the next Pirate King. Every player fell into the categories of pirate, marine, bounty hunter, merchant sailor or islander, which could be switch between at any time depending on choice for example, a bounty hunter could join the marines or an islander could become a pirate, the only restriction was that once a pirate gained a bounty they couldn't switch to something else.

Usopp's dad had had an old friend who had something to do with the original testing of the game and had been talked into playing by him, so he had been playing a while with that crew before the game got particularly popular. It had actually been his dad's idea that he get into the game too, siting that even if they didn't play together, they could still keep in better contact through the Private Messaging system while he was away. The gaming system had better reach and times he could be in contact than any phone system currently in place, what with being able to play while sleeping and all.

So, he had allowed his dad to buy him a console and signed in for the first time (though he had often had to pass messages between his parents through it because his mum had "no patience for video-games").

The problem in the beginning had been that he hadn't had anyone to play with. He didn't have any friends his own age and because he had linked his backstory to his dad's he had ended up on a starting island that hadn't had much happening on it and because he knew his dad played a pirate character he had not wanted to be any of the types that hunted them. At least until Oryan, Peter and Carson (who are the only people that Usopp could feel comfortable calling friends) had convinced their parents to let them play. But they had the restrictions by their parents that they could only play as islanders, so he had joined them in that category.

Usopp trudged the last steps to his apartment door and let himself in with a sigh, his mum was working the afternoon shift. He dumped his bag on the table, grabbed a quick snack and quickly set up for the boys before turning to his homework, knowing that getting it done now would give him more game-time later.

He had almost finished his math homework when a recognisable knock came at the door, one that the four of them had come up with at one point when they were bored.

Usopp answered the door to excited chattering of three ten year olds allowed to sleep over at a friends place, they were each carrying two bags, one for their consoles and the other for everything else. Standing slightly behind them, Peter's dad was carrying extra bedding that all the parents had agreed might be needed and looking at the boys, raised his eyebrow slightly to Usopp.

"You sure you'll be fine with this lot?" He asked, tilting his head to the boys.

"Yeah, we'll be fine as soon as we log in anyway." Usopp reassured the man, as he moved out of the doorway to let them all in.

"Yeah, dad." Peter also replied. "We'll just set up, then play for the night, it's not like we're going to destroy anything in this reality."

"Alright, alright. Just double checking." The older man chuckled, setting down his burden on the pile of bedding Usopp had already set up in the living room, before turning to the door. "If you all need anything before Mrs. Soge comes back you know where to find me."

"Yeah, we know," was repeated from four lips as Usopp followed the older man to the door.

"I'll just order the pizza and finish my homework while they set up," Usopp reassured him. "When we've finished eating we'll just log in, it won't be any trouble."

He just nodded as he left, Usopp closing the door behind him as he did.

Then came the avalanche of overexcited comments and questions.

"I saw that you captain got a bounty. That is so cool!"

"What did he do to get it?"

"What's it like to play as a part of a bountied pirate crew?"

"Hold up, I'll answer all of this when we eat," Usopp interrupted. "How about you all set up and I'll get this finished then we can talk."

Because the thing that they hadn't yet told anyone was that Ussop was no longer playing with the boys on the island, but had joined a pirate crew. A massive gameplay incident had happened on the island and the boys had spent a few days prodding their older friend to join up with the small crew that had taken part in it. They had invited him to join them afterwards as well, due to his sharpshooting ability and in the end, hadn't been able resist the idea of finally playing as a pirate like his dad.

He didn't know if he would call the crew friends yet, but they all seemed to be his age that he could see and seem friendly. Maybe he could make friends in the game after all.


End file.
